Scholars Group Proposals for Universal Suffrage for Legislative Council Elections

Proposal A

-Total number of seats in Legislative Council is 90.
-40 seats will be elected under first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. With approximately 4 million registered voters, there would be about 100,000 voters in each constituency.
-50 seats will be elected by “proportional representation”, with the whole Hong Kong as one constituency. We may maintain current “largest remainder method” and “Hare quota”. There is no election threshold in our proposal, any list that obtains more than 2% of votes (assuming voter turnout rate is about 50%, that is about 40,000 votes) can secure one seat.
-Compare to proposal B, this proposal has fewer seats elected under FPTP, and has no election threshold, it would be relatively beneficial to small parties.

Proposal B

-Number of seats in Legislative Council is 90.
-50 seats will be elected under FPTP. With about 4 million registered voters, we estimate it will be about 80,000 voters in each constituency.
-40 seats will be elected under “proportional representation”. Hong Kong will be divided into 6 to 7 constituencies, each constituency will return 6 to 7 seats, and D’ Hondt formula will be adopted.
-Compare to proposal A, this proposal has more seats elected under FPTP. The estimation is that parties with vote share lower than 5% may not get elected. The adoption of the D’ Hondt formula will reduce the fragmentation of the Legco.

Possible Transition Proposals

Transition Proposal for Proposal A for 2016 Legislative Council Election

-Number of seats in Legislative Council increases to 80.
-60 seats elected by universal suffrage, including 35 seats by proportional representation with the current division of constituency.
-25 seats will be elected under proportional representation with the whole Hong Kong as a constituency. There is no election threshold, and the “largest remainder method” and “Hare quota” are adopted. Each voter would then have two votes in two tiers of proportional representation.
-Functional Constituency is reduced to 20 seats. In the 30 current traditional FC seats, there are 9 seats for professional sectors; 15 seats for commercial and economic sectors; and 6 seats for social and political sectors. We suggest combine those seats into three large constituencies along the lines above, with each constituency returning two-thirds of its original number of seats. That is, the professional sectors will return 6 seats; 10 seats for commercial and economic sectors; 4 seats for social and political sectors. In each constituency, each elector can cast only one vote. The candidates that get the most votes win.
-The District Council (II) FC seats will be cancelled.
-Split Voting in the Legco will be abolished.

Transition Proposal for Proposal B for 2016 Legislative Council Election

-Number of seats in Legislative Council is 80.
-60 seats will be elected by universal suffrage, including 35 seats by proportional representation with current division of constituencies.
-25 seats will be elected by FPTP. Hong Kong is divided into 25 constituencies, with about 150,000 voters in each constituency.
-Functional Constituency is reduced to 20 seats. In the 30 current traditional FC seats, there are 9 seats for professional sectors; 15 seats for commercial and economic sectors; and 6 seats for social and political sectors. We suggest combine those seats into three large constituencies along the lines above, with each constituency returning two-thirds of its original number of seats. That is, the professional sectors will return 6 seats; 10 seats for commercial and economic sectors; 4 seats for social and political sectors. In each constituency, each elector can cast only one vote. The candidates that get the most votes win.
-The District Council (II) FC seats will be cancelled.
-Split Voting in the Legco will be abolished.

About us

Democratic forces joined together to form the Alliance for True Democracy (ATD) so as to achieve our common goal on universal suffrage. We will invite organizations which share the same belief to join us to strengthen the democratic league.